


paso doble

by FoxGlade



Category: Dragon Booster
Genre: Gen, Major Character Injury, Neurodiversity, Post-Finale, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-10 20:32:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7005298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxGlade/pseuds/FoxGlade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parm, Kitt, Lance, a noisy hospital waiting room, and a little too much time to think about the worst case scenario regarding their team mate and family member. A post-finale oneshot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	paso doble

Upper Mid City General Admissions is calmer and cleaner than most of the other hospitals on the level, but it’s still a hospital, and the waiting room is filled with crying toddlers, silent adults, and an air of exhaustion.

“We’ve been here forever,” Lance complains. “When’s Dad coming back?”

“Soon,” Parm says, just like he’d said when Lance had asked earlier. Lance sighs and slumps back further into his chair.

“He’s gonna be fine, Lance,” Kitt says. She’s been watching the news on the wall screen, but now she looks over at Lance and puts a hand on his back. “It’s just some ribs. When I was a rookie, me and Wyldfyr got rolled on the tracks, and then stamped on by half the other races – they took me to a _way_ worse hospital than this, and I was fine.”

“She’s right,” Parm says, stopping his pacing and holding up a hand. “Rib injuries are by far one of the most common injury related to dragon racing. The medical treatments have come a long way from the early days of racing, too – why, these days even multiple broken ribs can be healed in as little as three weeks—!”

“Parm,” Lance groans.

“What? What did I say?” He looks to Kitt for answers, but she just shakes her head. Lance sighs heavily and pushes himself off the chair.

“I’m gonna get a DracPop,” he announces, already walking towards the push machine at the other end of the waiting room.

“Don’t go too far!” Parm calls out; not because he thinks Lance will leave, but because it sounds like something Conner would say. Even after the past few months, being in charge of Lance is still slightly terrifying. Especially when Artha isn’t there to ease the pressure off of him.

 _Oh dear_. He starts pacing again.

“Hey, Professor,” Kitt says. He looks up at her, and she waves a hand at the now-empty seat. “Sit down a second, it’s making me tired just looking at you.”

He supposes he _has_ been standing for a while now. He sits, perched on the edge of the seat, hands folded in his lap, and tries not to think about the fabric of the chair beneath him. He’d touched it earlier when they’d walked in; some sort of horrible synthetic fibre that felt all wrong against his skin. He shifts uncomfortably and wonders how it’s possible that he can feel the irritating scratch of it through his clothes.

“—Parm. Draconis to Parm?” He jumps guiltily and looks at Kitt. “You blanked out,” she says. “Also, I think your leg activated its thruster gear. Are you okay?”

“He’s going to be fine,” he snaps, a few seconds before her actual words register in his brain. “Um – I mean.” He really is jogging his leg quite rapidly. He forces himself to stop, but it just starts up again without conscious thought moments later. “I’m fine.” He bites the inside of his lip.

“Right,” Kitt says. “Do you, uh…” She looks around at the crowded room. “Is it too loud? Do you need to go outside, or..?”

Parm shakes his head. He needs to lie down, by himself, in his own room with his own blanket. He wants to see Artha.

And then, abruptly, there’s a can of pop shoved in front of his eyes. He startles back and looks up to see Lance, returned with two cans, looking slightly sheepish.

“The machine gave me an extra one,” he says, shaking it slightly. “You want it?”

“Um,” Parm says. “No, thank you.” Lance just shrugs and hands it to Kitt instead, then sits in the seat next to Parm, swinging his legs a little.

“It’s been ages, now,” he says. “I bet Dad’s gonna come back any minute.”

Kitt is watching the news again – the scrolling bar down the bottom loops back around to spell out Artha and Moordryd’s victory earlier today. “Well,” Parm says, “it’s only been—” He looks at the timepiece in the corner of the screen. “Oh. Almost an hour.”

Lance collapses back in his chair.

“Maybe they’re making him fill out insurance?” Kitt suggests. Parm nods rapidly.

“Right!” he says. “Or perhaps they’re simply informing him more about the nature of the injury, and possible treatment plans. That’s it, I’d wager. All they’re doing is working out the best way to get Artha better. Nothing to worry about, Lance!”

“Yeah, nothing to worry about, Parm,” Lance replies, rolling his eyes. “Because you’re not worried at all.”

At the ensuing pointed glance, Parm looks down to see that his foot is still rapidly tapping, seemingly without his permission. He huffs.

“Well,” he says, and nothing else. Lance smirks as if he’s forced Parm to admit some deeply hidden secret. Honestly, it’s not like he’s trying to hide the fact that he’s worried in the first place – maybe just the extent to which he is.

In any case, it doesn’t really matter, as Conner enters the waiting room a few seconds later, greeted by Lance’s joyful cry. Conner kneels down to catch him as he races forward, then looks over at Parm and Kitt, also making their way towards him, albeit at a slower pace.

“He’ll be alright,” he says, and a palpable tension drains out of all three of them. “He’ll need a while to recover, but he should be back on his feet in a few weeks.” He smiles. “And off the race track for a while after that. Looks like it’ll be strictly theory lessons only, for the first week or so at the Academy.”

Kitt breathes out something like a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness,” Parm says faintly, at the same time Lance says, “Can we see him?”

Conner hesitates. “He’s asleep right now, Lance,” he says, hand on his son’s shoulder. “He needs to rest, for now. We’ll come back to see him tomorrow, when he wakes up.”

Lance visibly deflates. Parm can sympathise – their last sight of him wasn’t exactly encouraging, and even with Conner’s verbal assurance, he thinks he’ll be remembering the sight of Artha, collapsed and unconscious on a stretcher, for quite a while yet.

“Are they gonna let us see him?” Kitt says, glancing at Parm as she does. For the first time, Parm notices that she’s slightly paler than normal.

“They did mention that he’d be restricted to family only for the next few days…” Conner trails off at the demoralised looks on their faces. “But I think I can convince them to make an exception,” he adds. “After all, I know he considers you both as good as family. And so do I.”

“Me too!” Lance says, latching his arms around Parm’s waist. He pats Lance’s back and smiles awkwardly at Conner. It’s not the first time either of them have said something along the lines to him, but it never ceases to make him feel both embarrassed and grateful. When he looks over, Kitt looks… emotional. He can’t pick out exactly what her expression means, but he remembers her mentioning that she’s an orphan. He thinks it might be the first time in a long time that someone’s made her a part of a family.

“Alright,” Conner says, breaking the sudden mood. “I realise it may not be the most appropriate time for a celebration, but I was planning on cooking for all of your tonight, anyway. Kitt, the spare room is still made up for you, if you want to stay a while longer.”

“I’d like that,” Kitt says, the odd expression on her face giving way to a small, genuine smile. Conner nods, then, finally, pries Lance off of Parm’s side, throwing an arm around his son’s shoulders.

“Let’s go home, then,” he says, and leads the way out of the waiting room.

Parm’s still on edge, slightly, and he gets the feeling that he’s not going to stop feeling that way entirely until he can see Artha again. But it feels good to be going home.

**Author's Note:**

> [adele voice] hello....... it's me
> 
> i probably should have said this in an earlier fic?? but, theoretically, every dbooster fic i write is in the same 'verse, which is why they reference each other and (THEORETICALLY) line up chronologically. in practice, sometimes theyre gonna clash, bcause im very very bad at planning ahead. (oh and yes, all these fics are named after dances / dance steps, i did it for the first two and now im TRAPPED)
> 
> in that vein, there's two references which, sadly, had to be cut bcause they didn't fit the flow of this fic: first, lance referring to parm as artha's boyfriend, which was supposed to be a recurring joke in this series, but?? now that i think abt it, i dont think its ever actually made it into a fic. the second was parm mentioning that he had to call his mother, seleb, which would have been a throwback to a similar scene in one step two step, but unfortunately it had to be cut.
> 
> lastly, this fic was all shena's fault, obviously, but for once it was backed up by another! here's to you, kitty, i hope ur pleased with this offering (and thanks again for the drawings)


End file.
